Another trick that I have used with old bass strings is to make a loop from the hitch pin end and run it up and down the length of the string.This breaks up the rust and gets some of the crud out of the string.The nice thing about this method is that you can leave the coil on the tuning pin.Takeing old brittle bass sting coils off of the tuning pins is risky bussiness,they might break when you are putting them back on.Old wire is not very flexible. Robin Olson
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